Greek gods

Hades received the underworld, Zeus the sky, and Poseidon the sea, with the solid earth long the province of Gaia available to all three concurrently. In artistic depictions, Hades is typically portrayed holding a bident [ 5 ] and wearing his helm with Cerberus , the three-headed guard-dog of the underworld, standing at his side.

The origin of Hades's name is uncertain but has generally been seen as meaning "the unseen one" since antiquity. An extensive section of Plato 's dialogue Cratylus is devoted to the etymology of the god's name, in which Socrates is arguing for a folk etymology not from "unseen" but from "his knowledge eidenai of all noble things".

Martin Litchfield West argues instead for an original meaning of "the one who presides over meeting up" from the universality of death. This deity was a mixture of the Greek god Hades and the Eleusinian icon Ploutos, and from this he also received a priestess, which was not previously practiced in Greece. He had three older sisters, Hestia , Demeter , and Hera , as well as a younger brother, Poseidon , all of whom had been swallowed whole by their father as soon as they were born.

Hades god of war

Zeus was the youngest child and through the machinations of their mother, Rhea, he was the only one that had escaped this fate. Upon reaching adulthood, Zeus managed to force his father to disgorge his siblings. After their release, the six younger gods, along with allies they managed to gather, challenged the elder gods for power in the Titanomachy , a divine war.

The war lasted for ten years and ended with the victory of the younger gods. Following their victory, according to a single famous passage in the Iliad Book XV , ln. Zeus received the sky, Poseidon received the seas, and Hades received the underworld, [ 23 ] the unseen realm to which the souls of the dead go upon leaving the world as well as any and all things beneath the earth.

Hades obtained his wife and queen, Persephone , through abduction at the behest of Zeus. But, Goddess, give up your strong grief; let go of your infinite anger.